** A double century with this post after more than three years of blogging. Should have achieved this landmark about six months ago but better late than never.

** Mukul Kesavan, renowned writer who authored the book on cricket, "Men in White", (he contributes to a Cricinfo blog by the same name), is not happy with the Indian Premier League and goes to the extent of comparing it with trash in this article. Somwehere in the article he expresses his hatred for Twenty20 cricket stating that bowlers are cast as "extras" or in other words, are redundant.

** If Mukul had watched the inaugural match of the IPL between Bangalore and Kolkata, he may not have made such a statement. Or maybe he would have, given the fact that he hates T20. Any die-hard fan of cricket would acknowledge the Kolkata bowlers' efforts to bowl out the Royal Challengers for a paltry 82. But then, Mukul could challenge this by saying that the Bangalore team was full of Test players who are unsuited for T20. In that case, I would suggest him to watch the Kolkata vs Chennai IPL match in which bowlers of the Chennai team succeeded in their efforts to not give away too many runs to the Knightriders. While it is generally believed that T20 is a batsman's game, I am of the view that it has got something in it for the bowlers too. Any experienced, talented bowler will realise that he has only four overs to produce his best. Taking wickets may not be all that necessary but not conceding too many runs is. It gives him an opportunity to innovate, come up with new ways to fox the batsman and he can then apply these strategies to 50-over matches. I hear someone saying IPL + T20 = death of FOI(fifty over internationals) but I can ignore him/her for the ICC has already planned to conduct an FOI World Cup in 2011 and that too in the Indian subcontinent and I am sure it will be much better than FOI WC 2007 which turned out to be a dampener.

** Another piece of garbage in Mukul's IPL trash can is what he calls razzmatazz provided by Bollywood stars and cheerleaders. Fans like me find the entertainment from the cricketers more fascinating than that by Bollywood stars, one of whom has termed himself the 12th man of the Kolkata team. Somewhere near the end of the post, Mukul compares IPL with the EPL i.e cricket with football. He says that teams in the EPL have a century old legacy attached to them and since the IPL does not have one, it will fail because of narrow geographical base. He must realise that this is only the inaugural series and down the line we might have teams like Ahmedabad Avalanches, Madurai Machans, Cochin Kuttichaathaans etc. Whether the IPL will fail or not, we will know after this inaugural tournament and what comes after that. With one whole month of T20 action, it is too early to say.

** Meanwhile the Indian Cricket League(ICL) is charting out plans to have an all-England team on the lines of its all-Pakistani team, the Lahore Badshahs. There are plans to have South African, Australian and West Indian sides as well.

** The ICL has applied to the ICC seeking recognition. The IPL has requested the ICC to provide it a window i.e include it in the international cricketing calendar. Not to be done in by the success of its neighbour, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) plans to launch its own premier league. The ECB has collaborated with millionaire Allan Stanford, resulting in a Stanford-ECB T20 league. Cricket Australia (CA), who was a victim of the Kerry Packer circus of the late 1970s, is planning its own T20 league.

** Elsewhere in TamilNadu, the trailor and music of KamalHassan's upcoming movie 'Dasaavathaaram' are working wonders. Listening to the music resulted in Malcolm Speed quitting his post of ICC president and watching the trailor frustrated Harbhajan Singh so much that he slapped his Indian team mate Sreesanth and was slapped in return with a rest-of-IPL ban.

Atlast,One good post on IPL..I've been reading too much trash ..I wonder why Ppl hate T20 so much..Seriously,any one who follows the game well,will realise that the spell from Mcgrath and Asif in which they destroyed the opposition,was just as good as the Mccullum century..Well thats life i guess..Novelty always scares ppl..I guess inspite of all the rubbish(there are quite a lot of flaws in IPL ),T20 is the future

OK,let me start1..Pulling in the boundaries is a bad idea,it makes the bowlers look like jokers.This has to scrapped2..Also,if this format is to survive,it can pick up cues freom ICL in including three referral to the third umpire ala tennis style(this has to in meantime extend to ODI's and Tests)3..To build up club loyalties,i think blooding of local talent is must.Otherwise local patrongae may be difficult,but we all enjoy good quality cricket from international stars too.4..The telecast has to given to a good broadcaster (read ESPN-Star),otherwise SEt max will make it advertisemsnt mela..This really is a pain in the wrong place.5:dont bow to pressure from pseudo fundametalists and touch the lenght of teh cheergals costumes..As the adage says,"Short(s) is sweet"

And hey::one great thing is the lower ticket prizes,was able tpo watch for 220 bucks ..tat was a pleasant surprise...T20 is the future widout doubt,evolution is only a natural result [:P]

The telecast by SET-MAX has moved from bad to OK primarily because there's no Mandira Bedi.The present anchors,Ajay Jadeja(barring the calling-Asad Rauf-as-Aleem Dar blooper) and Shiv Pandit are quite good,but are in no way comparable to Harsha Bhogle.Even ESPN-Star has been putting instant ads at the end of overs and wickets but the match previews and reviews are excellent because of Harsha Bhogle.